Standing 50 metres above the ground, waste collected at the Ghazipur landfill site will be used for road expansion projects by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in an effort to reclaim the site.

A Memorandum of Understanding to this effect has been signed between East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Union Ministry of Urban Development, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the NHAI to reclaim the landfill site and use municipal solid waste dumped there for construction purposes.

Running past capacity for over 14 years, the site — spread over 29 hectares — has been posing a health hazard due to decomposing garbage and frequent fires.

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“The waste collected will be segregated and processed into material that can be used by the NHAI to expand National Highway 24 and other highways,” EDMC commissioner Mohanjeet Singh said.

The landfill site exhausted its capacity to accommodate municipal waste in 2002, and now stands about 50 metres above ground level. The permissible upper limit for dumping garbage at a landfill is approximately 15 to 20 metres.

The commissioner said according to conditions of the MoU, the EDMC would dispose of recovered materials which cannot be used for road construction, and “also collect the leachate generated from the project on a daily basis and transport it for processing and disposal to a sewage plant located at Ghazipur”.

Once the project is completed, NHAI will return the site to the civic body.

The project is being initiated under the new Solid Waste Management Rules and aims at “scientific and harmless removal, transport and reuse/disposal of municipal solid waste” generated in Delhi.